DAY 68: Kiki Goes to the Hospital

DAY 68: Kiki Goes to the Hospital, originally uploaded by Kikigill.

(Or, How Kiki learns to love anti-nausea drugs, IV narcotics and the call button)

For the last five days, I have had a pain in my lower right side. It all started when I ovulated - the mittelschmerz pain I experience each month with ovulation came to visit and never left. Five days later, I had the startling thought that it could possibly be a low-grade appendicitis, if there were such a thing. I called the "on-call" doctor with my practice to ask him if I should make an appointment with him or my OB for the morning and he instructed me to go straight to the ER. So, packing my usual camera and BlackBerry, off I went.

I asked my cousin, who was over for Sunday dinner and heading up that way for a game of basketball to drive me and he willingly obliged. Off we went. He dropped me at the ER doors, I went in, was triaged and in a bed within a half hour or so. It was wonderful...not the pain, but I was very glad to be cared for and to be finding out what was wrong with me. Much to my chagrin, doctors and nurses did keep thinking that maybe I did have appendicitis. I was still pretty convinced it was an ovarian cyst, but was happy to have it checked.

About five minutes in the hospital bed and I was doped up on IV narcotics and anti-nausea drugs. Life was so improved already!






AHHHHHHHHHH....
Can you see it in my eyes here?


Then, I had to drink two twelve ounce cups of weird Tang-flavored drink. This was the stuff, I was told, that would color my organs and make them visible on the CAT scan.



It felt THIS big:


But, soon it was all done...it was 9:30 PM. Now I only had to wait 90 minutes "dwell time" for the meds to seep through my GI-tract.


After the CAT scan, I was told at midnight that I did not have appendicitis, but had an ovarian cyst 5 cm in diameter. And, why this is I do not know, I instantly felt the propensity to compare it to a citrus fruit...think lime or clementine. I was told after an ultrasound to rule out an ovarian torsion, I would be able to go home. Three hours later, all was done and I headed home at 4 AM...exhausted, having slept for about an hour total while listening to the sound of coughing and vomiting people and screaming children. Before I left, they gave me a big dose of morphine in my IV...


My friend the call button...Thanking God that my children do not have one of these to reach me...